2008 Goals
2008 Business & Investing Goals
Below is an overview of my 2008 Business & Investing goals, along with the current status for each goal and sub-goal. These goals were originally laid out in a May 2008 blog post:
- Buy My First Piece of Real Estate (Personal Residence)
- Create a Formal Business and Management Structure
- Define my business structure
- Register my business structure
- Create a plan for accounting and management of the business
- Set up bank account(s), credit card(s), and other services as necessary
- Understand and plan for tax implications and expense accounting
- Complete my Business Plan
- Build a Reliable/Aggressive Team
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
- Attorney
- Real Estate Agent
- Property Management Company
- Insurance Agent
- Title Company
- Property Inspector
- Identify an Investing Location Using Formal Analysis
- Purchase At Least 10 Units of Investment Property
While more a personal goal than a business goal, the benefits of buying a personal residence as my first piece of real estate will provide me a deal of knowledge about the tactical aspects of real estate acquisition. Proceeding through a first RE deal will help me understand the entire acquisition process — locating properties, negotiation, due diligence, the lending process, and the closing process.
Goal Status: Completed
This goal is all about setting up a formal structure that will provide both tax and legal benefits for my investing activities. As I expect that I will be building multiple businesses over the next couple years, ensuring that I get this part right the first time is very important; I plan to work with several accounting and legal professionals to ensure this goal is carried out correctly.
Specifically, this goal will include:
Goal Status: Completed
Goal Status: Completed
Goal Status: Completed
Goal Status: Completed
Goal Status: Completed
I wouldn’t even consider buying my first investment property without completing a full Business Plan for my RE business. This should include my business goals, strategies, tactics, and risks. It should go into detail about investment criteria and how I will potentially work with outside investors and supporting team.
Goal Status: Completed
To be successful, I need to build a strong supporting team. At the very least I need to identify (and retain) the following team members:
Goal Status: Completed
Goal Status: Incomplete
Goal Status: Completed
Goal Status: Incomplete
Goal Status: Completed
Goal Status: Completed
Goal Status: Completed
I will create a set of criteria and questions used to judge the ability of each team member to support the company and make us successful. I will use that criteria and question list to find the most complementary team members.
While I’ve already identified the area where I will be living (Atlanta), it’s not yet clear exactly where I will be investing. It would certainly be convenient to invest in the Atlanta metro area (and if at all possible, I will), but the decision on where to invest should be based on much more than just where I live.
I will do some formal analysis of various location criteria to determine my primary investing location(s). If Atlanta proves to be my preferred investing location, I will do more formal local analysis to provide direction on which specific local areas I should be targeting.
Goal Status: Completed
Once I identify an investing location, it’s time to start buying property. Unfortunately, until I actually start trying to locate and acquire property, I have no baseline to determine how many units I can/should expect to acquire over a given period of time.
Additionally, being new to REI, I don’t want to rush into large investments just for the sake of owning units. Instead, I will acquire properties at whatever pace feels natural, and only when I find properties that meet my criteria.
All that said, I think it’s important that I state a goal for how many units I plan to own by the end of the year. Based on the fact that I don’t yet know if I will be buying single family homes, duplexes, triplexes, 4-plexes, apartment buildings, or apartment complexes, I don’t want to be too specific with this goal. But, I think it’s reasonable to set a goal of 10 units (where a unit could be a single family home, half of a duplex, or single apartment unit, etc) for the remainder of the year.
I will likely revisit this goal as I continue to learn and gain experience.
Goal Status: Partially Complete (3 Properties Purchased)
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